People have been asking general questions in comments on unrelated posts. If you have a general question, please post it as a comment here, and I’ll reply to it. If I help, consider showing your appreciation by buying me a coffee!
Alternatively, you can post a question in the SAP-hosted SAP Enable Now Community.
Hi Dirk
I made the web assitant connection with SFSF following your indications of “the complete web assistant”. But I can’t create my own content.
Send description of the error:
No help content avaliable for this application.
Create your help content and publish in to the Manager.
Screen ID: HOME/HOME_TAB/HOME_V3
Lenguage: en-US
Product: SFSF
Product version: 1805
System: 1Not provided
Content Roles: Not provided
Environment Information
Help Framework 2.4.13
thanks for your support!!
Julian:
When you see that dialog box saying “No help content available…” do you also see a button called “Create Standard”? If so, click on that. I’m guessing your SF is on prem? Do you at least see the standard SAP content? If not, check you have Standard SAP Content selected (this is the equivalent of “serviceLayerVersion=UACP”). If you do see the SAP content, but it won’t let you create your own, make sure Custom Content is selected (which is the equivalent of “servicelayerVersion=WPB” – or “…=EXT” if you have both selected), that the ‘Custom Content’ Enable Now Server is correct (and has a trailing slash), that the correct Workarea is specified, and that you have write permissions on that Workarea. If you can’t easily change those settings, then use in-URL parameters to at least test it out. Let me know how you get on.
Dirk
Hi Dirk
I can see the standard content icon, when I click it it says creation failed.
I can see the standard SAP content, but it does not allow me to edit it.
I made your prompts, but it still doesn’t work.
The SF is a Test version, do you think that is the problem?
thanks for your support
Hi Dirk,
I have same issue with Julian. What would be the cause of this?
Thanks for your support.
Sorry, just saw that I hadn’t responded to Julian’s latest comment. In short, I think it is probably an authorization issue. You need Write permissions to the Workarea connected to Web Assistant. Check your permissions in Manager – including on the Workarea/Tags screen.
You need Write permissions to the Workarea connected to Web Assistant. Check your permissions in Manager – including on the Workarea/Tags screen.
Hello Dirk,
I checked permissions, it seems fine but I received same error message. So still I am not able to add guided tours and context help. Could you support me?
Thank you so much.
Mina: If you have the correct permissions on your own Workarea, maybe it is trying to save your changes somewhere else. What do you have specified for serviceLayerVersion, dataUrlWPB, and dataUrlWPB2? (Mask out your client name if responding here, else email me directly.)
I created a few demos on Enable now producer and uploaded to a web server for customers to interactive with. However, there is a severe lag when viewing/practicing the demo from the web server. More specifically, when I first run through the demo there is a huge lag, but when I replay it again, it is much faster. What would be the cause of this?
Bobby: Most likely it is down to network lag, and the reason it goes faster the second time is because it is cached. Is this your own Web Server or SAP’s Enable Now cloud? If the latter it depends where your content server is in relation to the customer (an ongoing issue, i find). One thing to check: see what resources are being sucked in when you publish. Are you using and image files, or is it just the captured screenshots (there is a nuance with that…).
Hi Dirk,
The person who uploaded the demos was able to connect to a server through their Workarea, so I’m not sure if that’s cloud or their own web server. As far as the resources, it just captured screenshots. Is there way to perhaps reduce the size of file/screenshot…?
OK well if they are using the Cloud Edition of SAP Enable Now and have just ‘published to that, then you are at the mercy of wherever the provisioning server is (there is basically one per region, with NO mirroring). If that is the case, complain to SAP. If enough customers complain about response times maybe they’ll give us mirrored content servers (I’ve been asking). The screenshots are unlikely to be an issue. They are typically small (a 1600×900 screenshot is saved as a ~80k .png), and only loaded one at a time.
Thank you for your time and reply. Is there anything else that can be done or what if it is a web server? Any other ideas/thoughts to increase the load time?
All I can suggest is checking the Dependencies Dialog for one of the simulations and make sure it’s not pulling in anything it doesn’t need to, or entire Groups (that’s usually the issue with images although you say you have only the screenshots).
Thank you kindly for your time.
Hi Dirk,
I created a few demos on Enable now producer and uploaded to a web server for customers to interactive with. However, there is a severe lag when viewing/practicing the demo from the web server. More specifically, when I first run through the demo there is a huge lag, but when I replay it again, it is much faster. What would be the cause of this?
Hi Dirk,
Any idea what causes Fiori recordings to be only a few kB large? Afterwards, there is only the possibility to create a demo out of them, but not a guided demo where the customer can click himself. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
Maarten: That almost sounds like you’re just creating a Screencast Video… You’re recording via Producer, correct? Not just the ‘Recorder’ feature in Desktop Assistant? You can record other applications OK? There is nothing special in Fiori that would cause this. If everything else is OK maybe it is down to the recording profile. Make sure you’re not using Quick Recording – it should default to UI5 for Fiori. Also check your settings, and in particular the Profile Change setting (which should normally be set to ‘always change’), Recording Mode (normally ‘Both Recording Modes’) and Control Recognition Method (normally ‘Profound Recognition’).
Producer has stopped recording dropdown lists.I records the box and then the selection but doesn’t show the actual list.
I’ve seen this, too, but I haven’t been able to figure out the root cause. I _think_ it is probably down to the profile used, but it may not be. What I find is that instead of capturing a Select Single macro, the recorder captures a Mouse Action for clicking in the field, then a second Mouse Action for the selection from the drop-down. Luckily it still captures the values for the drop-down in the All Values property on the second Mouse Action. So I end up manually inserting a Select Single, and copying the values into this (and adjusting the other Control properties). It’s not perfect, but at least you can get a workable recording.
For what it’s worth, I have a Customer Improvement Request in to provide better UI matching for Select Single macros, and another to let you change a macro from one type to another (so you can change the second captured Mouse Action into a Select Single) but I don’t know if they will ever get done.
Hi Dirk!
I´m performing an upgrade from Enable Now 1905 to 1911. Do you know which are the previous steps I need to do prior to upgrading and what should I take into account to do a proper migration of the content? Should I migrate all the material I have or I can select the materials I do not want to migrate to the new version? Thank in advance for your help. 🙂
Daniela: I’ve not done it myself, so to save giving you any wrong advice, I’ll refer you to SAP’s ‘official upgrade’ guide, which you can find here: https://help.sap.com/doc/b5d9d3f784624629819e62c700a6cb27/2005/en-US/SAP_Enable_Now_Upgrade_Guide_en-US.pdf. Why are you only upgrading to 1911 though? 2005 is the latest…
HTH, Dirk
Hi Dirk,
We are just starting to set-up Enable Now and your book has been invaluable – thank you!! I was wondering if you had some advice/recommendations for our initial set-up? We have about 1,100 employees and about 20 standard authors and 2 master authors who will be using Enable Now. During our SAP training it was recommended that we only have one Workarea, but this seems problematic to me in that everything would be open to all authors and with 20 authors it would get very messy particularly with unsorted items?
My IT Admin for EN is concerned that we can’t transfer/copy files from one Workarea to another and that we also can’t clone/recreate a new Workarea and would have to build it from scratch each time. Is this correct?
Anyway, just wondering what other companies do when they are setting everything up for the first time 🙂 Thanks for any guidance or best practices you might be willing to offer!
– Jennifer
Jennifer: (SNOPUD – I’ve spoken to you guys before!)
I usually advocate the use of a single Workarea as this provides easier opportunities for re-use – not just of content, but of styles/standards, templates, and so on. The downside, as you note, is that any Author can edit any content. SAP have been talking about implementing Group-based permissions for a while now, but I’m not holding my breath on that. With 20 Authors you should be able to manage things – just be very clear in your expectations of them, including maybe having consequences of users editing/deleting content they shouldn’t (like taking away their Author access until their Supervisor approves reinstating it – that threat is usually a good enough incentive. Just make sure you have a clear structure under Root, and make sure everyone creates content within that (possibly in a Development Group if you don’t want Authors ‘contaminating’ the ‘Production’ structure. You can leave some permissions (like delete, maybe publishing) with the Master Authors only, if you’re really concerned. You can also have your Master Authors use ‘keep checked out’ for the key (high-level) Groups so Authors can’t mess with them. Also, don’t forget that everything is version-controlled (showing who changed objects and when), can be rolled back, and can only be finally deleted from the Server trash by approved Master Authors, so there’s not really any chance of something ‘unrecoverable’ being done – the hard part is noticing that something has changed/disappeared in the first place!
You _can_ copy content from one Workarea to another, either through Export/Import or through the Import Form Other Workarea feature in Manager – but this creates a copy, so you need to remember what has come from where – especially with shared resources (although you could use linked Workareas to get around this). To clone a Workarea you would need to Export/Import everything – possible but not recommended. But why would you want to?
Ultimately, it’s up to you. Personally I’ve not had a problem with having several dozen Authors from different organizations in the same Workarea.
HTH, Dirk
HI Dirk, i found your book on enable now extremely useful and a honest opinion is it is far far better than the SEN100/200 courses. Good job!.
i am in a unique situation to use enable now on enable now producer :).. i need to produce a series of short burst demos on the basic usage of producer to a group of prospective authors in my department. is there anyway for this?
Glad you found the book useful. I’m not sure I understand the question, though. You have access to Producer and now want to provide some demos? That sounds easy enough. Just decide what bits of functionality you want to cover (because there’s a LOT) and focus on the basics so you don’t overwhelm them. I’m assuming you mean a live demo or screenshare? If you need to provide a ‘canned’ demo, Snagit video or Camtasia work reasonably well – just avoid the temptation to record using Enable Now IN Enable Now (it’s possible, but never as effective as you think it will be).
Thank you Dirk!.. But i am tempted for sure. Can you guide me how to record using Enable now in enable now please?and i have another query as well. Can we access enable now offline typically when there is no internet connection?
To use Enable Now to record Enable Now, add the Expert Feature NoMutex=1; Add it, do your recording, then take it off again.
To access content offline, you just need to publish out a standalone player with a type of Standard. See Page 219 onwards of the book.
Hello Dirk,
Let’s say I need a full screenshot for one of my documentation files (e.g. Standard Document), but I want some auto-cropped screenshots for another file. Is there a possibility to have settings like that?
If I see it right, the cropping depends on the authoring settings, which have to be set even before the recording is made and settings for the document types can not alter the already recorded (and cropped) screens.
In short, no not possible. Cropping is set per project, and will apply to all document types generated from the project. You cannot override this in the project or in the document definition. Autocrop is set in Settings > Authoring Settings > Auto Crop and test, will be applied at the start of recording. I think your only option is to set autocrop as default, generate one document, uncrop all, generate the next document, then throw away your changes (by reverting or canceling checkout as your changes will be automatically saved when you generate the second document).
Hi Dirk,
I am not able to get the text I entered in SAP GUI to be output in the screenshot when I generate Word doc from the screen recording. Am I missing something?
SAP Enable Now shows the ‘completed’ field by capturing an image of the field after you completed it (during recording) and overlaying this onto the (pre-completion) screenshot in the document. Check the properties in the Documentation category of the Input Text macro. The Screenshot property should contain an image of the completed field, and the Object Image Position property says whereabouts (in relation to the full screenshot – not the crop) where this should be placed in the document. Make sure these are being set correctly and that you’ve not inadvertently changed / deactivated them.